Regional Training Programme on Seizing Opportunities with Regional Power Grids

The Asia-Pacific region is key for a global clean energy transition. Cross-border power system connectivity is recognized to be an important facilitator of the clean energy transition, by enabling the integration of higher shares of renewable energy, reducing energy costs, and increasing energy security. There are numerous efforts in the region to increase cross-border power system connectivity.

Specifically, under the Memorandum of Understanding for the ASEAN Power Grid (APG), the Lao PDR-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore Power Integration Project (LTMS-PIP) has made remarkable progress with multilateral trade already established. Under the current ASEAN Chairmanship, it is anticipated that increasing attention on multilateral power trading in the region will advance agreements and propel it towards implementation.

In 2019, the IEA published the report “Establishing Multilateral Power Trade in ASEAN”. The ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting welcomed the report in September 2019 in Bangkok. The recommendations included minimum requirements for establishing multilateral power trade, as well as suggested institutions which need to be leveraged or created. As a continuation in 2022, the IEA carried out a series of capacity building workshops for the ASEAN Energy Regulators Network (AERN), to prepare its role in multilateral power trade.

In 2023, the capacity building is extended to encompass broader stakeholders including the energy ministries and utilities. The focus also shifts from a theoretical understanding of the states of multilateral power trade, to concrete actions that can be taken in the context of ASEAN and Asia Pacific.